Responding to Emergencies

1
Responding to Emergencies

• Whats the Health Department going to do.?
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2
An emergency requires

• Visibility
• Quick response
• Accurate information
• Consistency
• Trust, credibility
• Titles count!

3
Health Dept.s role during an emergency

• Whos confused? Everyone!
• Oversight responsibilities
• Role of the Health Officer
• Reminder that ACPHD is de-linked from county
  hospital and clinics

4
Post 9/11

• The profile of health depts. rose sharply.
• White powder (Anthrax) everywhere
• Handling mail dilemma
• Protocols for 911 responders
• Addressing the sick and worried well

5
Bioterrorism is teaching us

• Scope and scale
• Tapping dept. resources and beyond
• The power of hoaxes
• The power of hysteria

6
Health Dept.s role

• Coordinate medical response
• Link to DHS
• Incident reporting
• Create CD protocols for clinicians
• Investigation and surveillance

7
Our role

• Ensure seamless system of care
• Delineate roles and responsibilities
• Acknowledge the health emergency and the criminal
  investigation

8
Challenge Multiple audiences

• County residents
• Hospitals
• Physicians other clinicians
• County community clinics
• Community-based agencies

9
Multiple Audiences

• Elected officials
• Professional groups
• Internal staff
• Media
• Unions

10
Information tiers

• Does the public learn about emergencies before
  your internal staff?
• Do clinicians get more information than hospital
  support staff (housekeeping, security)?

11
Multiple communication mechanisms

• How many ways can we make contact?
• For media emails, faxes, websites,
• in person
• For staff newsletters, emails, websites,
  employee updates

12
Multiple mechanisms

• For Professional groups list serves, conference
  calls
• Everyone Databases

13
Addressed or not?

• Language capacity
• Needs of the disabled
• Formal community linkages
• Ability to tap community leaders and institutions

14
Addressed or not?

• Role of indigenous workers
• Mental health needs of residents staff
• Ability to operate 24/7
• Cementing partnerships

15
Shared knowledge

• We cant handle emergencies alone.
• Best practices
• Lessons learned
• Post mortems
• Tabletop exercises
• Regional collaborations